9 Nev. 95 | Nev. | 1873
By the Court,
Judgment was rendered against the defendants in an action upon the following forfeited recognizance :
“ State of Nevada, i “County of Lander, j ss’
“An order having been made on the twenty-sixth day of October, A. d. 1872, by W. K. Logan, justice of the peace of the County of Lander, that A. E. Pryor be held to answer upon the charge of grand larceny upon which he has been duly admitted to bail in the sum of one thousand dollars, we, John Gr. Birchim an<] P. W. Murray of the said county, undertake that the above named A. E. Pryor shall appear and answer the charge above mentioned in whatever court it may be prosecuted, and shall at all times hold himself amenable to the order and process of the court, and if convicted shall appear for judgment, and render himself in execution thereof, or, if he fail to perform either of these conditions, that he will pay to the people of the State of Nevada the sum of one thousand dollars.
“J. G-. Birchim. [seal.]
“P. W. Murrax. [seal.]
' ‘ Witnessed and approved by me, this 26th day of October, 1872.
“ W. K. Logan, Justice of the Peace.”'
The rules governing the construction of commitments and recognizances are essentially different. The common law has always protected the subject against arbitrary imprisonment by requiring the causes of his detention to be expressed upon the commitment. “A commitment,” says Mr. Hurd, “in the absence of any statutory provisions prescribing its form and contents, does not sufficiently state the offense by simply designating it by the species or class of ‘ crimes to which the committing magistrate may consider it to belong; but it ought to state the facts charged or found to constitute the offense, with sufficient particularity to enable the court, on a return to a habeas corpus, to determine what particular crime is charged against the prisoner.’ ” Hurd on Habeas
A recognizance, however, is the voluntary act of the obligors, and assumes the existence of a valid commitment. The reasons for setting forth the particulars of the offense in commitments do not exist in the case of recognizances, and the construction given to the words “nature of the offense,” as they occur in section 166, is inapplicable to the same words in section 504.
Section 4968 of the laws of Iowa contains a form for recognizances similar to our section 504. It was held in The State v. Marshall, 21 Iowa, 143, where the principal was held to answer upon a charge of seduction, that the use of the word “seduction” in a bail bond was a sufficient compliance with the requirement of the statute to “state briefly the nature of the offense.”
The word “nature” is defined by Webster as meaning “ sort, kind, character or species,” and we think this is the sense in which it is here used. The requirements of the statute are, therefore, substantially complied with.
We are not, however, restricted to a construction of the blank form in section 504. The object of this section is to provide a form which the magistrate may be required to accept. A failure to follow the form would not release the obligors from their liability. 2 Ld. Raym. 1138, 1459; Phelps v. Parks, 4 Vt.; 34 Iowa, 323.
The judgment of the district court must be affirmed. It is so ordered.